The colon cancer includes cancerous growths in the colon, rectum and appendix. The colon cancer is the third form of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the Western world. This type of cancer causes 655,000 deaths all around the world each year, among which 16,000 are in the UK.

Many of the colon cancer forms are believed to develop from adenomatus polyps in the colon. These are usually benign, but some of them can develop cancer in time. The patients who have colon cancer are usually being diagnosed through a colonoscopy. Surgery and chemotherapy are the only known therapy when talking about this type of cancer.

Still, many of the hospitals in the U.S. fail in giving the adequate treatments for the colon cancer patients and the most important thing doctors don’t do is that they don’t check lymph nodes after surgery to see if cancer has spread.

Medical organizations say that doctors should check at least 12 lymph nodes to see if the colon has metastasized and to clearly diagnose the stage of the cancer. The information helps to know what treatment does the patient need after the surgery.

Only 38% of 1,296 U.S. hospitals checked nearly 12 lymph nodes in nearly three quarters of patients who had been in surgery to remove the colon cancer in 2004 and 2005. Dr. Karl Bilimoria of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who led the study, said that "We were disappointed at how low the compliance rate is still."